Mike Maccagnan must get Jets the help he didn’t give Bowles

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Todd Bowles offered no excuses after Patriots 38, Jets 3, after 4-12, after 24-40, because he knows there are no excuses on his way out the door.

You could be coaching The Little Sisters of the Poor, and your job is to figure out a way somehow, some way, no matter what.

“As a coach, you’re supposed to win regardless of who’s on your roster,” Bowles said.

He arrived as The Toddfather.

He exits as Todd Fodder.

It is why Jamal Adams called on GM Mike Maccagnan to procure more talent for the next coach than he procured for the one walking out the door.

Maccagnan stays in large part because he maneuvered his way into drafting Sam Darnold. Bowles finishes 14-35 over his last 49 games because he couldn’t stop his players from bone-headed penalties, couldn’t motivate them, couldn’t get them to stop choking and to finish off wins, couldn’t stop himself from being Woody Hayes at times when he should have been Doug Pederson.

Bowles is the fall guy. But it is fact that Maccagnan failed to find him a pass rusher, a center or a nuclear offensive weapon, and instead signed a $72.5 million cornerback who felt the need to apologize to his teammates for reportedly missing enough meetings and practice to earn himself a DNP, one last lesson from Bowles on his way out the door.

“You gotta go get big-time players, you gotta go get names,” Adams said. “You look at the top teams — you look at the Saints, you look at the Rams, you look at the Chicago Bears — you look at all these teams, man, c’mon man, you gotta go get players. It’s nothing against the players in here — great teammates of mine, great brothers, and we have talent — we’re not all the way there in certain spots.”

Bowles and the Jets were 3-3 at one point this season. The organization wanted to play its golden child right away, and seemingly so did he, if you think back to the May minicamp when someone asked him how Darnold looked in his first practice and he giddily bellowed: “He looked great! I want to play him right now!”

If only he could develop the chosen one and win enough games to show progress to ownership.

He is Todd Fodder on merit.

Just make sure you don’t put all the blame on him.

“You can’t beat around the bush, man,” Adams said. “That’s why we’ve been losing, we’ve been beating around the bush. You can’t beat around the bush, man, you gotta be real with yourself.”

Maccagnan has to try to get the next coach Le’Veon Bell, who would do wonders for Darnold. Adams sounded ready to start recruiting him on Sunday evening.

“Bell is one, obviously … but you gotta create a culture around here for free agents to come,” Adams said.

Maccagnan, who will also own a top-three pick in the draft, has to be Magic Mike, or Money Mike with the $100 million at his disposal for free agents.

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“When you have an opportunity like that, in cap space, you gotta make it happen,” Adams said.

It is a shame Bowles, a bright defensive mind and straight shooter the players liked and respected for being the same guy every day through thick and thin, couldn’t make it happen.

“Coach Bowles is a great coach,” Darnold said. “He’s going to be himself day in and day out, and I think any player can respect that and I think all the coaches respect that too. He’s awesome to play for.”

None of them expected 4-12.

“I think a lot of people in this locker room expected for this game here to have a lot of meaning, whether it was getting us in, or us being out,” Kelvin Beachum said.

Bowles was asked about his emotions about 4-12.

“Probably the same as the record, 4-12, you don’t feel very good,” Bowles said.

He seemed resigned to his fate, and as bloodied as he had been, he remains unbowed.

“I think I got better as a coach each year I’ve been here, and I’ll continue to do so,” Bowles said.

Bowles had been hugged at midfield by Bill Belichick, then led an army of stone-faced Jets to the visiting locker room, and removed his green Jets wool cap before he entered it. He walked through his team for the last time, stopping before exiting to lean over and tell young cornerback Derrick Jones, “I’m proud of you. Don’t let up. Come back ready to go.”

Coaching to the bitter end.

He has too good of a reputation not to land on his feet as a defensive coordinator. “The ball doesn’t bounce your way all the time,” Bowles said.

Not only couldn’t he make the ball bounce his way, he leaves it deflated.

“Effort has never been a problem for us,” Bowles said. “It’s always been situational football and playing the right way at certain times.”

Or playing not at all against Matt Barkley (see Bills 41, Jets 10).

So it ended for Bowles the way it ended for him at the end of his rookie 2015 season and the three following seasons, out of the playoffs … only this time it ends for him out of a job. It ends for him with his Adams, his Pro Bowl safety, mourning his departure and making this plea to the GM — “Give us some help to change this around” — much too late to help him.